THE SUMERIANᇹᇺᇻ WORLD The Sumerian World explores the archaeology, history and art of southern Mesopotamia and its relationships with its neighbours from c.3000 to 2000BC. Including material hitherto unpublished from recent excavations, the articles are organised thematically using evidence from archaeology, texts and the natural sciences. This broad treatment will also make the volume of interest to students looking for comparative data in allied subjects such as ancient literature and early religions. Providing an authoritative, comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the Sumerian period written by some of the best-qualified scholars in the field, The Sumerian World will satisfy students, researchers, academics and the knowledgeable layperson wishing to understand the world of southern Mesopotamia in the third millennium. Harriet Crawford is Reader Emerita at UCL’s Institute of Archaeology and a senior fellow at the McDonald Institute, Cambridge. She is a specialist in the archaeology of the Sumerians and has worked widely in Iraq and the Gulf. She is the author of Sumer and the Sumerians (second edition, 2004). THE ROUTLEDGE WORLDS THE REFORMATION WORLD THE ROMAN WORLD Edited by Andrew Pettegree Edited by John Wacher THE MEDIEVAL WORLD THE HINDU WORLD Edited by Peter Linehan, Janet L. Nelson Edited by Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby THE BYZANTINE WORLD THE WORLD OF THE Edited by Paul Stephenson AMERICAN WEST Edited by Gordon Morris Bakken THE VIKING WORLD Edited by Stefan Brink in collaboration THE ELIZABETHAN WORLD with Neil Price Edited by Susan Doran and Norman Jones THE BABYLONIAN WORLD THE OTTOMAN WORLD Edited by Gwendolyn Leick Edited by Christine Woodhead THE EGYPTIAN WORLD THE VICTORIAN WORLD Edited by Toby Wilkinson Edited by Marin Hewitt THE ISLAMIC WORLD THE ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN Edited by Andrew Rippin WORLD Edited by Augustine Casiday THE WORLD OF POMPEI Edited by Pedar W. Foss and John J. Dobbins Forthcoming: THE RENAISSANCE WORLD THE MORMON WORLD Edited by John Jeffries Martin Edited by Carl Mosser, Richard Sherlock THE EARLY CHRISTIAN WORLD THE BUDDHIST WORLD Edited by Philip F. Esler Edited by John Powers THE GREEK WORLD THE ETRUSCAN WORLD Edited by Anton Powell Edited by Jean MacIntosh Turfa THE SUMERIAN WORLDᇹᇺᇻ Edited by Harriet Crawford First published 2013 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2013 Harriet Crawford for selection and editorial matter; individual contributions, the contributors. The right of Harriet Crawford to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978–0–415–56967–5 (hbk) ISBN: 978–0–203–09660–4 (ebk) Typeset in Adobe Garamond by Keystroke, Station Road, Codsall, Wolverhampton CONTENTSᇹᇺᇻ List of illustrations ix List of contributors xv Chronological framework for fourth millennium southern Mesopotamia xxi Historical phases and kings of the third millennium BC xxiii Introduction 1 Harriet Crawford PART I: THE BACKGROUND 11 1 Physical geography 13 Jennifer R. Pournelle 2 Hydraulic landscapes and irrigation systems of Sumer 33 Tony J. Wilkinson 3 Sumerian agriculture and land management 55 Magnus Widell 4 The end of prehistory and the Uruk period 68 Guillermo Algaze 5 The Sumerian language 95 Graham Cunningham 6 History and chronology 111 Nicole Brisch v –– Contents –– PART II: SUMERIAN SOCIETY: THE MATERIAL REMAINS 129 7 Patterns of settlement in Sumer and Akkad 131 Jason Ur 8 The organisation of a Sumerian town: the physical remains of ancient social systems 156 Elizabeth C. Stone 9 Public buildings, palaces and temples 179 Marlies Heinz 10 Kings and queens: representation and reality 201 Claudia E. Suter 11 The Sumerian sacred marriage: texts and images 227 Kathleen McCaffrey 12 In the service of the gods: the ministering clergy 246 Joan Goodnick Westenholz PART III: SYSTEMS OF GOVERNMENT 275 13 Democracy and the rule of law, the assembly and the first law code 277 Marc Van De Mieroop 14 Administrators and scholars: the first scribes 290 Jon Taylor 15 Calendars and counting 305 Tonia Sharlach 16 Seals and sealings in the Sumerian World 319 Holly Pittman PART IV: LIFE AND DEATH 343 17 Everyday life in Sumer 345 Paul Collins 18 Women and agency: a survey from Late Uruk to the end of Ur III 359 Julia M. Asher-Greve 19 A note on Sumerian fashion 378 Lamia al Gailani Werr 20 Sumerian and Akkadian industries: crafting textiles 395 Rita P. Wright vi –– Contents –– 21 Death and burial 419 Helga Vogel 22 Sumerian mythology 435 Benjamin R. Foster PART V: THE NEIGHBOURS 445 23 Trade in the Sumerian World 447 Harriet Crawford 24 North Mesopotamia in the third millennium BC 462 Augusta McMahon 25 Cultural developments in western Syria and the middle Euphrates Valley during the third millennium BC 478 Lisa Cooper 26 Sumer, Akkad, Ebla and Anatolia 498 Christoph Bachhuber 27 The Kingdom of Mari 517 Jean-Claude Margueron (translated by Harriet Crawford) 28 Ebla 538 Frances Pinnock PART VI: THE ENDS OF THE SUMERIAN WORLD 557 29 Iran and its neighbors 559 C.C. Lamberg-Karlovsky 30 The Sumerians and the Gulf 579 Robert Carter 31 Mesopotamia, Meluhha, and those in between 600 Christopher P. Thornton 32 Egypt and Mesopotamia 620 Alice Stevenson POSTSCRIPT 637 The Mesopotamian marshlands: a personal recollection 639 Azzam Alwash Index 643 vii ILLUSTRATIONSᇹᇺᇻ FIGURES 1.1 (a) The Mesopotamian Zone geosyncline. (b) Mesopotamian Zone tectonic subunits. (c) Mesopotamian alluvial topology. (d) Boundary uplands. (e) The Shatt al-Arab deltaic system. (f) Contemporary (1) Levees, (2) Crevasse splays, (3) Alluvial soils, (4) Bird’s foot delta. 1.2 (a) Tigris south of Amara (Qalat Salih-al-Azair). (b) Outlines demarcate relict levee between sites WS375 and WS400.(c) The Kut barrage on the Tigris between Sheikh Sa’ad and Ali al-Gharbi. (d) A relict avulsion south of Wilaya 1.3 (a) Amara, straddling Tigris distributaries arrayed in a bird’s foot delta. (b) Warka (ancient Uruk), straddling a relict bird’s foot 1.4 The Mesopotamian Delta, c.5000–3000 BC 1.5 Sumerian cities founded within marshlands 1.6 (a) Hundreds of thread-like channels suggesting levee cultivation combined with intensive marshland exploitation. (b) ES156 in the Eridu Basin. (c) Abu Dakar in the al-Khuraib (Tigris) marshes south of Amara. (d) Desiccated water channels (white) infilled with dry sand skirt EP156. (e) Dendritic water channels (black) through reed beds skirt Abu Tanam 1.7 Changing shape of the Mesopotamian Delta 2.1 Section through levees showing the deposits of canals and ancient channels 2.2 Levees and flood basins in the southern alluvium around modern Suq al-Shuyukh 2.3 Archaeological sites of the Ur III, Larsa and Old Babylonian periods and associated channels in the area of Umma 2.4a Layout of an ancient canal system ix –– Illustrations –– 2.4b Diagrammatic layout showing the possible distribution of lateral canals and their associated irrigated land versus a single longitudinal canal 2.5 Ottoman irrigation system around Qal’a Sussa on the Shatt al Kar 2.6 Bulk transport of reeds by boat 3.1 Chronological distribution of tablets during the five kings and 106 years of the Ur III state 3.2 Size measurements (in Sumerian iku) of the 452 fields (a-sˇa3) measured in the Lagash cadastral texts 3.3 Shapes of the 269 fields (a-sˇa3) measured in the Lagash cadastral texts 3.4 Organisation of the supervision of fields and field workers in the Ur III period 3.5 Administrative division of a ‘field’ (a-sˇa3) in the Ur III period 4.1 Reconstructed plans of Late Uruk monumental buildings in Eanna Area at Uruk/Warka 7.1 Southern Mesopotamia and adjacent regions 7.2 Surveys and site density in Sumer, Akkad, and adjacent regions 7.3 Late fourth millennium (Late Uruk period) settlement in Sumer 7.4 Urbanization and rural abandonment in the early third millennium 7.5 Mid-third millennium (Late Early Dynastic period) settlement in Sumer and Akkad 7.6 The late third/early second millennium settlement in Sumer 7.7 Settlement and regional abandonment in the Old Babylonian period 7.8 Later second millennium BC (Kassite) settlement, including Adams’ proposed watercourses 7.9 Number of sites (left y-axis) and settled area (right y-axis) in three surveyed regions 7.10 Urbanization and ruralization in Sumer in the fourth through second millennium BC 8.1 Comparative plans of three Protoliterate towns 8.2 Plan showing an Uruk to Early Dynastic I landscape 8.3 Plans showing the locations of Oval temples at Khafajah, Pashime, Lagash, and Ubaid 8.4 Comparative views of Eridu and Kish 8.5 Late Early